 |
| Carter Gap Lean-to (the following morning) |
Woke up to rain and thunder this morning. Had a bad night with my knee bothering me pretty bad. Yet it doesn't really bother me when I'm hiking anymore. We were really down and bored all morning. It rained hard until about noon and there was some pretty bad thunder, last night, too, and strong winds blowing. We heard on the radio that there were tornadoes all over North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, etc. We were right in the general area, too. There are over 300 people dead and lots injured, towns destroyed, disaster areas declared, everything seemed to have gone wild. They say this was the worst tornado outbreak in 50 years. I guess we survived it. [This was actually the historic "Super Outbreak" that has been called the worst such event of the 20th century. If you ever read "A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins, he was somewhere very close to where we were at this time and also wrote about the tornadoes. A Wikipedia link]
Anyhow, after fighting depression all morning, playing cards and fighting a slight case of diarrhea with a marvelous tasting mint flavored medicine, we ate lunch and then decided to go hiking, since it had stopped raining. So we packed up and split about 2:00 and set out up Standing Indian Mountain. Two miles up over 5,000 feet. Then down for a long way gradually and fast and finally over another mountain and down to the next shelter - only 8 miles. We arrived at 5:30. Not bad time. Started to clear up a bit. Missed some good views on Standing Indian because of the fog.
It smells like there is a skunk living under this shelter, so we may have problems tonight. Of course last night while we were playing cards, I felt something against my legs next to my sleeping bag, and it turned out to be a skunk. He snooped around my pack and climbed up it trying to get inside. Fortunately he couldn't, so we hung our packs up after he left. He came back later and left disappointed after not finding any packs handy.
"You really get sick of living with mice and skunks all the time." - Rick M.
Rick has a pretty messed up Achilles tendon. A big lump near the heal and swelling up aways from there. Looks bad. We have 12 miles tomorrow with some big climbs, so I hope he can make it. Will try to hitch a ride to Franklin, NC at the road. May get food, Rick may buy a new pack, ground cloths, water containers. Hope we can reach the road okay and get a ride.
 |
| The Chef |
 |
| Very wet gear |
Boy we sound like we had an awful lot of physical problems. Guess we weren't in very good shape for this hike.
ReplyDeleteI remember that night with all that rain and wind. Listening to the transistor radio and hearing about all the tornados around. Scary!